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Dina Freedman ReportingGardening season is getting closer, but a creature may be bugging the plants in Utah County.
Last summer, the State Department of Agriculture caught 600 beetles in Orem and while that doesn't seem like a lot of bugs, these ones are new to the area, so we went from no insects to hundreds of them and each female can lay 50 eggs!
The Japanese beetle can take out crops, gardens, leaves and even needles on a pine tree.
On Monday, a person from American Fork brought the bug to the State Department of Agriculture and now they are planning to trap them there this summer.
They can't start trapping until the beetles come up from underground around June or July and are asking people to help out.
The two ways that we're asking the public to help out with the Japanese beetle program is to be cooperative and let our trappers put traps in their yard. The other way is that people can be on the look out for us," says Survey Entomologist Clint Burfitt.
The State Department of Agriculture says what you need to look for are small brown and green beetles, about 10 millimeters or at the biggest half an inch. They are shiny and have little white tufts on their lower sides.
If you do find a beetle, they want you to turn it in. Click on the links on the right of your screen.
